The present invention relates to a threaded closure assembly, and more particularly, to an open ended container having a lid provided with a tamper indicator.
Many resources have been devoted to providing an improved locking lid which cooperates with an open end container. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,732,288, 4,967,926, 5,125,538, 5,377,858, and 5,915,575 each show improvements to the container assemblies wherein the top, or lid, has a locking feature relative to the open end container. While these locking lid assemblies are satisfactory for their intended purposes, they all provide no way to tell if the lids have been removed and replaced.
It is not unusual for some containers to be opened for one reason or another without authorization. For instance, a dishonest customer may open a first container, remove some product into a second container and close the lid on the first container and put it back on the shelf. Since most containers are not equipped with tamper indicators, the later purchaser of the first container has been cheated out of some of the product.
Additionally, some owners of containers may want to ensure that children or other persons do not get into certain containers. If the containers can't always be located in a secure environment, there is often no way to easily tell whether or not they have been inappropriately opened.
In spite of the improvements which have been developed with containers, a need still exists to develop an improved container. Furthermore, a need exists to provide a tamper indicator which indicates when the top has been removed from the pail.